Netflix plan for cable boxes threatened by Comcast/Time Warner merger

Supporting Netflix would "cannibalize their business."

Netflix's attempt to bring its video streaming service to Time Warner Cable set-top boxes "is on hold now that the cable operator is being sold," Bloomberg reported today, citing anonymous sources.

Comcast last week announced it has a deal to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion. Netflix was in talks with several pay-TV providers to integrate the subscription video service with set-top boxes, the Wall Street Journalreported last October. Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among the companies that Netflix was negotiating with.

"The discussions are unlikely to progress before Time Warner Cable (TWC)’s $45.2 billion acquisition by Comcast Corp. is completed," Bloomberg's report said today. "Comcast, which isn’t as far along in its own talks with Netflix, is focused on increasing film downloads and rentals with its new X1 set-top box platform."

“They will not be in any kind of rush to let Netflix on their cable box and cannibalize their business,” industry analyst Arvind Bhatia told Bloomberg.

A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Ars.

Even without the merger, Netflix may never have succeeded in getting on Time Warner and Comcast cable boxes. The large amount of traffic Netflix streams to customers of the cable companies, which offer their own competing services, has been the source of various business disputes.

The Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger is expected to receive a thorough antitrust review by the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice.

Groups of people don't (and absolutely should not) have the same rights as people. To pick only the most obvious example: citizens have a right to vote in elections. A corporations composed only of citizens does not have the right to vote, nor should it. I take both claims (don't have the same rights, should not have the same rights) as being fairly obvious. I admit that there is substantial disagreement about which rights, and to what extent the same/similar rights, but that's a pretty deep conversation to be having.

If you guys are going to chuck slogans back and forth, that's fine, but why waste everyone's time? Alternatively, if you're using shorthand arguments to mean something different, and you're actually interested in the conversation, then perhaps it's worth spending a bit of time composing a more lengthy reply.

This sounds bad now, but think how bad it will be when the new ComWarner can its newly found clout to make back room deals to prevent other content providers (i.g. Netflix) from getting any content. Comcast says it wants to merge with Time Warner to be in a better position to get content for itself, but it could just as easily use the same leverage to block content from others.

If you guys are going to chuck slogans back and forth, that's fine, but why waste everyone's time? Alternatively, if you're using shorthand arguments to mean something different, and you're actually interested in the conversation, then perhaps it's worth spending a bit of time composing a more lengthy reply.

Courts have consistently ruled that corporations have a right to free speech, protected under the First Amendment.

And "the people" (plural) have a First Amendment right to "assemble" and to "petition the government for a redress of grievances". I other words, corporations have a Constitutionally-protected right to lobby.

If you guys are going to chuck slogans back and forth, that's fine, but why waste everyone's time? Alternatively, if you're using shorthand arguments to mean something different, and you're actually interested in the conversation, then perhaps it's worth spending a bit of time composing a more lengthy reply.

Courts have consistently ruled that corporations have a right to free speech, protected under the First Amendment.

And "the people" (plural) have a First Amendment right to "assemble" and to "petition the government for a redress of grievances". I other words, corporations have a Constitutionally-protected right to lobby.

Some may not like it, but that is the settled law. Deal with it.

This is precisely the sort of 'more lengthy reply' I was writing about.

Why the goddamn fuck is Comcast even legally allowed to run a video service?

Can't believe this got so many up votes.

Comcast and other cable TV operators were specifically created to run video delivery service. It used to be all TV broadcasts, then they added VOD. That's how they keep themselves up. It's a perfectly reasonable for them to expand their VOD selection to compete against Netflix which is stealing their cable TV revenue.

The problem is that they are also an ISP. As both an ISP and a content service, they are abusing their monopoly position to destroy competing services. Because there is generally only one true broadband option for any given consumer, that ISP will do everything in its power to make sure their nobody else can deliver content over their network.

An analogy is if Walmart owned every road in town and charged everyone to use those roads. Obviously walmart will maintain only the roads to their own stores and charge competing stores excessive fees for access to those roads. By being allowed to both run the road system and also shops on that road system, they can ensure that no other stores can compete.

This is precisely how ISPs operate today. They are refusing to provide the needed bandwidth to netflix because netflix competes with their own cable service.

The solution is obvious, split the cable companies apart. ISPs should be prohibited from offering services (including TV service) over their own pipe. ISPs should only be allowed to sell bandwidth and nothing else.

And there are all those recent reports of ISP customers not having enough bandwidth to netflix anymore. I personally can't get HD streams except for weekdays when everyone else is at work.

Basically, the ISPs make sure they have sufficient bandwidth to everywhere... everywhere except for netflix. ISPs are purposely dragging their feet on providing the required bandwidth because it is to their advantage to cripple netflix's connection.

Because they own the connection to homes, they will ensure no other services are able to deliver reliable video services to those homes. This isn't a conspiracy theory or theoretical scenario. No, this is exactly what is happening today.